3. Characteristics of Mental Health
• Interpret reality accurately
• Have a healthy self-concept
• Able to relate to others
• Achieve a sense of meaning in life
• Demonstrate creativity/productivity
• Control behavior
• Adapt to change and conflict
4. Figure 1-1 A person with a healthy self-concept accepts herself as she is, including the fact that she has cerebral palsy. Source:
PhotoEdit Inc.
5. Figure 1-2 Finding a sense of meaning in life is part of mental health. This hiker finds meaning in nature. Source: Omni-Photo
Communications, Inc.
6. Mental Disorders
Symptoms related to thinking, feeling, or
behavior
Caused by genetic, biological, social, chemical or
psychological influences
Result in impairment of functioning
Meaning of illness related to culture
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders definitive source for information
People are not defined by their illness
7. Five-Axis Diagnosis System
• Axis I: Clinical Psychiatric Disorders
• Axis II: Personality Disorders or Mental
Retardation
• Axis III: General Medical Conditions
• Axis IV: Psychosocial and Environmental
Problems
• Axis V: Global Assessment of Functioning
8. Role of the Nurse
• Part of the multidisciplinary treatment team
• Plans and provides care for the client
• Collect data regarding the client’s mental and
physical diseases, life stressors, and diseases
effects on ability to function
• Nurses focus on client’s response to illness
9.
10. Incident of Mental Disorders
Major problem for people all over the world
Incidence underestimated
Mental illness makes up 5 of the 15 leading
causes of disability in developed countries
Half of people in the US with major
depressive disorder will have a psychiatric or
substance abuse disorder in their lifetime
12. Figure 1-6 Educating adolescents about avoiding drug abuse is a primary prevention strategy for mental illness.
Source: PhotoEdit Inc.
13. Stigma of Mental Illness
• Mark of disgrace on mental illness in our
culture
• May feel too ashamed of mental illness to
seek treatment
• Physicians may hesitate to diagnose a mental
illness for fear of labeling their client
14. Stigma of Mental Illness
• Nurses should advocate for clients and avoid
negative labeling
• Do not explain medical illness according to
fears and guesses
• Base practice on evidence, not assumptions
15. Historical Perspectives
• Mental illness documented back to
Hippocrates
• Treatment aimed at punishment
• In the 1790s Phillippe Pinel started “moral
treatment” of the mentally ill
• Dorothea Dix crusaded for facilities to treat
mentally ill
• Mental health nursing became part of the
curriculum for nurses in the early 1900s
• Psychotropic drugs invented in 1950s
16. Figure 1-3 The “tranquilizing chair”was used to control people with mental disorders in the 19th century. Source: National Library
of Medicine.
17. Figure 1-4 “The crib”was used to control people with mental disorders in the 19th century. Source: Stock Montage, Inc./Historical
Pictures Collection.
18.
19. Vulnerability of the Mentally Ill
Among the most vulnerable in our society
Disease prevents speaking effectively for
themselves
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
(NAMI) acts as an advocate providing
support, education, and political advocacy
Person who uses mental health services is
called a consumer, not a client or patient
20. Vulnerability of the Mentally Ill
• Most important role of nurse is as an
advocate
• Ask for mental health consultation is an
important act of client advocacy
21. Figure 1-7 There are more charitable donations to benefit homeless animals than for homeless people. Source: Photo
Researchers, Inc.
22. Resources
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill has information for
consumers and their families
http://www.nami.org/
National Institute of Mental Health has information regarding
symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of various mental illnesses.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml
Psychiatryonline has information from the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental disorders available for many mental
illnesses.
http://dsm.psychiatryonline.org/book.aspx?bookid=22
